Stems simple or sparingly branched, 3-8 dm, rough- hairy with retrorse hairs and some longer spreading ones; lvs sessile, lanceolate, 2-5 cm, rounded at base, entire or some, especially the upper, bearing near the base 1 or 2 small, divergent, lanceolate lateral lobes; fls sessile in the upper axils, forming a leafy spike; cal 15-20 mm, the tube densely retrorse-hairy, the lobes lanceolate, longer than the tube, usually very unequal in width; cor 2-2.5 cm, purple; fr round- ovoid, 1-1.5 cm; 2n=26. Prairies or open upland woods; O. to Wis. and Minn., s. to Mo., Kans., and Okla., also locally in s. U.S. and apparently intr. from N.J. to Pa. and Va. Aug., Sept. (Otophylla a.; Tomanthera a.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

I found this species in a wet prairie in Benton County about a mile southwest of Fowler. It was first found by Elmore Barce who told me where to look for it. It was found in Lake County by H. C. Benke. Pennell reports a specimen of this species in the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil. adelphia, which was collected by Dr. Short in the "barrens" of Indiana. There is a specimen in the herbarium of Wabash College collected by A. Clapp in the vicinity of New Albany, Floyd County, in 1837.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 8

Wetland Indicator Status: N/A

Diagnostic Traits: Stems retrorse-hispid; leaves opposite, lanceolate, greater than 5 mm wide, auriculate; calyx and purple/pink corolla with 5, +/-equal lobes;